Brooder stove



Patented Dec. i6, i924.

UNlTED STATS HUGH L. seniors, or MAcoMB, immers,

co., on Mascara, rtnincis,

ASSIGNOR '.'IO AMERICAN STEEL PRODUCTS A CORPORATION OF ILLINO'S.

'.BROO'DER STOVE.

Application tiled .Tune 11, 1824.

To alli/17mm t may concern Be it known that I, HUGH L. GADDrs, citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Macomb, in the county of McDonough and i State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Brooder Stove; and I do hereby declare the following` to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertaius to make and use the same.

My invention relates to stoves of the general class of which coal burning heaters are typical, and in general relates to the providing of effective and easily regulated means for controlling the rate of consumption of the fuel so as to regulate the heating eect of the stove. For such general purposes, my invention provides a stove or heater having an exceedingly simple and effective arrangement of the air supply and of the check draft, provides a construction in which the supply of air to the bed of fuel and to the check draft is simultaneously controlled in proportion to the temperature produced by the stove, and provides means whereby the air supply to the bed of fuel can also be separately controlled either when starting the lire or to compensate for varying atmospheric conditions.

More particularly, my invention provides a heating stove in which both the air for the check draft and at least a large portion of the normal air supply to the bed of fuel are admitted thro-ugh a single duct, in which. the portion of the duct affording the check draft is controlled by a damper, and in which this damper is so disposed with respect to the air inlet of the duct as to divide the flow of the entering air under certain conditions of regulation. It also provides an arrangement for this purpose which will insure an adequate check draft even with a hot lire in the stove and which will respond rapidly in starting such a check draft when the desired limiting temperature has been reached.

Furthermore, my invention provides an exceedingly simple construction for this general purpose which may be employed advantageously in a stove operated within an inclosure, such as the hover of a brooder; in which the damper can readily be controlled by a thermostat supported by the stove; in which an auxiliary air supply for the bed of fuel can be manually adjusted to compen- Serial No. 719,239.

sate for the prevailing atmospheric conditions, and in which this auxiliary air supply will not interfere with the regulating action of the damper. It also provides a brooder stove construction which can be employed with substantially equal facility with the air supply derived either from within the brooder or from outside of the latter, and one which can readily be equipped with a draftchecking and flue-drip catching baflie. Still further and also more detailed objects of my invention will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. l is a central, vertical and longitudinal section through a brooder stove embodying my invention. showing also a portion of the hover or hood of the brooder.

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the same stove drawn on a smaller scale.

Fig. 8 is a horizontal section through the stove of Fig. l, taken along the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary and enlarged front elevation of the rotatable shutter which controls the auxiliary air inlet at the front of the irebox in each of the illustrated embodiments.

In the illustrated embodiment. the heating stove of my invention comprises a base 31 having its top forming the bottom of a tircbox Q which has grates l mounted on it and which also supports the casing 3 of the fuel chamber or heater chamber of the stove. Surmcunting this heater chamber is an upper portion which includes top casing 4 having a fuel feed opening normally closed by a removable door 5 and having an upwardly directed collar 6 for receiving the usual flue pipe or chimney which is shown in dotted lines at 7. This upper stove portion also has an opening desirably disposed opposite the fuel door opening or at the rear of the stove and leading to a duct 8 which extends downwardly along the back of the stove and opens at its bottom into the firebox, the latter being preferably extended rearwardly beyond the bottom of the heater or fuel chamber so as to extend under the lower end of this duct 8 as shown in Fig. l.

In designing such a stove for a slowburning rate of fuel consumption such as is desirable in a brooder stove, the connection between the interior of the heater chamber 3 and the ,fluepipe is desirably throttled by a CTl baffle which restricts the passage of hot gases from the heater chamber to the flue. For this purpose I preferably employ a removable baffle formed with a horizontal portion disposed directly under the flue pipe so as to catch drip from the latter after the manner more fully disclosed in my copending application No. 712230, filed May 10, 1924, on a slow burning stove. Such a baflle 9 is here shown as supported at the top of the casing of the heater section of the stove and the baffle 9 as thus disposed cooperateswith the two lateral walls of the stove in affording a check draft chamber 10 which effectively forms the lower portion of the flue.

This check draft chamber or lower flue portion is continuously connected to the upper end of the duct 8, so that air would pass freely upward through this duct from the ashpit to the flue if the bore of the flue was not obstructed. However, I mount within this duct a damper 11, here shown as secured to a rock-shaft 12 having an arm 13 disposed outside of the duet, whereby this damper may be moved to any desired extent out of its duct-closing position of Fig. 1. The duct 8 is provided below the damper with an air inlet 14, here shown as a simple round opening at the back of the duct, so that air entering through this inlet 14 can afford a down draft into the fireboX for supplying air through the grates, and can also supply an upward check draft through the upper portion of the duct into the flue when the damper is opened.

In employing such an arrangement for an automatically regulated heating stove, such as is needed in a brooder, I desirably fasten to the back of the'stovea bracket 15 supporting a pair of expansible thermostatic wafers 16 at some distance from the stove but still underneath the hover 17 of the brooder. rlhese superposed thermostatic wafers in turn support a rocking lever 18 which is connected at its free end through a link 19 to the exposed arm on the rockshaft carrying the damper. I also desirably provide the usual front door 2O of the ashpit with a number of openings 22 adapted to aline with corresponding openings in a shutter 21 which is rotatably mounted on this door so that its openings can be moved into or out of alinement with the said openings 22 in the door of the firebox.

With the stove thus constructed, it will be obvious from Fig. 1 that as long as the damper 11 closes the upper duct portion, air entering this duct through the inlet 14 will pass downward into the firebox and then upward through the grate 1 so as to maintain the combustion of the fuel on this grate. As soon as the resulting increase in temperature below the hover of the brooder reaches the point for which the thermostatic wafers are designed, the expansion of these wafers raises the lever 18 and begins to rotate the damper in a direction which is clockwise in Fig. 1, thereby permitting some of the air in the duct to pass upwardly into the check draft chamber' or lower flue chamber 10. Since this duct has a rear wall portion of the heater chamber as its own forward portion, the Conduction of heat through this rear wall portion will continually tend to warm the air in the duct 'i and when the damper is closed, this causes hot air to accumulate in the portion of the duct below the damper and above the air inlet 14.

As soon as the damper is even slightly opened, the warmth of this air will cause a decided upward current, thereby starting an upward movement of a part of the air which enters through the inlet 14. Consequently, even with the damper only slightl ly opened, I secure a division of air entering the duct, leaving part of this air to afford the down-draft for maintaining the re while another part affords an up-druft through the duct into the flue and thereby checks the draft of the h-ot gases from the heater chamber. If the resulting control of the lire is not adequate, the thermostat will continue to move the damper still further and when the damper is in its fully opened position, practically all of the air entering through the inlet 14 may ow upward to act as a check draft. However, as soon as the temperature of the air adiacent to the thermostat falls, the wafers will contract, thereby allowing gravity to lower the lever arm 18 and to move the damper towards its closure position.

By suitably proportioning the size of the duct and that of the air inlet with respect to the size of the grate and the diameter of the flue, I can readily secure au entirely automatic action while employing an exceedingly simple construction involving only a single rockingly mounted damper. ,l-Iowever, the down-draft as thus obtained through the suitably proportioned duct and air inlet may not be suflicient for the starting of a lire, or for overcoming the checking effect of the outer air under certain barometric conditions. Hence I desirably also provide an auxiliary and manually controlled air inlet, such as that afforded by the shutter 21 at the front of the iirebox. By manipulating this shutter to meet the conditions above mentioned, I can readily adapt my heater to all ordinary operating conditions, while leaving the automatic control to the thermostat and damper arrangement.

However, while I have heretofore illustrated and described my invention in a desirable embodiment including the draftchecking and drip-catching baffle of my said copending application, and one in which the Cil Lamiera air supply is all drawn from the interior of the hover, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction and arrangement as thus disclosed. Ubvious, many changes might be made without departing either from the spirit oit my invention or from the appended claims.

lllith the illustrated embodiment, it will be obvious that the continuous warming of the duct will tend to produce an upward movement of air in the same, thereby cooperating with a relatively high location of the air inlet for the duct in opposing the strong down-draft due to a hot lire within the stove, and particularly so when the duct opens directly downward into the ashpit as in Fig. l. So also, by placing the damper somewhat above the air inlet for the duct, l entrap considerable hot air immediately below the damper when the latter is entire-- ly closed. By doing this l secure an upward rush ott the hot air as soon as the damper is even partly opened, thereby starting the needed check draft current in prompt response to the action ol" the thermostat. Furthermore, the proportionate areas of the duct and the air inlet, as well as the relative distances from the air inlet to the ashpit and the flue may be varied considerably.

Moreover, l do not wish to be limited to the employment of my invention in connection with brooders, as its automatic and partly differential draft controlling features would obviously operate in the same manner regardless of the purpose for which the heat of the stove is employed.

l claim as my invention l. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a ilue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the iiue and having an intermediate air inlet, and a damper controlling the part of the flue between the air inlet and thc flue.

2. ln a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a line, a d uct connecting the ashpit with the flue and having an intermediate air inlet, and a damper controlling the part of the flue between the air inlet and the flue, the duct having a wall portion in common with the heater chamber so as to be heated by direct heat conduction from the latter.

3. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above the ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the flue and having an air inlet disposed at a considerable height above the ashpit, and a damper controlling the portion of the duct above the air inlet.

4. ln a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the lue and having one wall in common with the heater chamber, the duct having an air inlet in its opposite wall, and movable means for controlling the portion ot the duct between the air inlet and the flue.

5. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the flue and having an air inlet at a considerable height above the ashpit, and means responsive to the temperature at a point spaced from the heater for controlling the movement of air through the duct from the inlet to the flue.

6. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a 'fluer` a pair of duct portions leading from a single air inlet respectively to the ashpit and to thelue, and means for controlling the movement ot air through the duct portion leading from the air inlet to the flue.

7. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a pair of duct portions leading from a single air inlet respectively to the ashpit and to the flue, a damper in the duct portion leading from the air inlet to the flue, and thermostatic means for controlling the damper.

8. ln a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the Hue and having an intermediate air inlet, a damper controlling the part of the flue between the air inlet and the flue, and an auxiliary air inlet for admitting air to the ashpit independent of the said duct.

9. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the flue and having a continuously open air inlet for admitting air to the duct at a point between the ashpit and the flue, a damper in the duct between the lue and the air inlet, and an auxiliary air inlet Jfor admitting air to the ashpit independent of the said duct.

10. A stove as per claim 9, in combination with automatic means for controlling the damper, and manually controlled means for controlling the auxiliary air inlet.

1l. ln a stove, a heater chamber, an ashpit disposed below the heater chamber and extending beyond one lateral wall of the said chamber, a flue connected to the top of the heater chamber, a duct opening downwardly into the said extending portion of the ashpit and leading to the flue` the duct having an air inlet intermediate of the ashpit and the flue. and a damper controlling the portion of the duct between the air inlet and the flue.

12. In a stove, a heater chamber disposed above an ashpit and below a flue, a duct connecting the ashpit with the flue and having an intermediate air inlet, and a damper controlling the part of the flue between the air inlet and the flue, the air inlet being sufliciently below the damper so as to aord a hot air pocket when the damper is closed.

Signed at Macomb, Illinois, J une 7, 1924.

HUGH L. GADDIS. 

